Atlantis checked while chasing Hubble

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida: The Atlantis astronauts inspected their ship for any signs of launch damage yesterday as they raced after the Hubble Space Telescope on an especially perilous and bold repair mission.

Back on Earth, NASA continued prepping another space shuttle to rush to the astronauts' rescue if any serious damage is found. And over at the pad used by Atlantis, NASA discovered a surprising amount of damage from Monday's liftoff.

On their first full day in orbit, Atlantis' crew used a laser-tipped boom to look for damage during a survey that was expected to take several hours. Initial photos during the launch indicated that Atlantis looked fine, but the analysis was continuing.